Pool Sand from Mermaid and Help with CYCLING

[Shannon]

I just wanted everyone's opinion before I start to put this sand in the tank.  Who ever already has it in their tank---- does it raise the PH too high?  Is this sand different than silica sand? I want it for my african cichlids.  

Also wanted to know if it is a good idea to take half the gravel out of my other tank to put in the new tank? Will this help it cycle??

Also can I split the foam filter part in half and put half old and half new in the new tank to help cycle??


If any one can help I would appreciate it
THANKS

[dpatte]

I can't comment on the new sand - I'll leave that to someone else.

I would take a cup or so of the old gravel and put it in the new tank filter, or a nylon sock so you can remove it later when the tank is cycled (I personally don't like seeing mixed sand types in a tank for esthetic reasons, unless they look VERY natural together).

I would take the old filter medium from the old tank and use it in the new tank - and put new medium in the old tank.

[SteveO]

I use the pool filter sand in a couple of my african cichlid tanks and my PH stays between 8.1 & 8.2. I am unsure about the silica sand as I have never used it.

[ambushman2j]

I agree with david mostly, while I am not saying he's wrong as in fish keeping there's many different ways which are right, personally using the half filter media is good to IMO as you suggested but I would not put any gravel from old tank into new, in a sock or not..bad experience personally..but that's just me, doesn't mean it will happen in your case, or it may not even be the reason I had the bad experience

[Shannon]

Drew,  what happened to you when you used gravel from old to new?I wanted to change the gravel from one to the other because I didn't like it in this tank in my family room.  So I was going to to take half and put it in new tank and then add other stuff I wanted so it would look different colour in the end.

[ambushman2j]

well for me when I added new gravel that's around when I got no end of trouble starting, I got weird worms all over everything, little flies on the top of the water which would fly out at me when I would open the lid, the water turned cloudy, I got ick..these things might not have anything to do with adding gravel..but I don't take that chance myself anymore